We’d Get Lost Without Him
By Tony Adams
Alan Beck, who has lived for 86 admirable years, was recently honored for his work in LGBTQ+ tourism with a Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed by the “Florida Out Coast Convention.” He tells the story of his achievements with endearing humility and honesty.
“I took the EST training [Erhard Training Seminars] sometime in the ’70s. It gave me a deepening of the way I lived my life. At the end of the training, participants are supposed to have an ‘Aha’ moment. Mine was that I am not a victim, and that I am in control of my life.”
Armed with this realization, Beck set aside fear and trusted himself as he built a succession of businesses that experienced all the ups and downs successful people will tell you to expect along the way. He started a company called “Columbia Marketing Corporation,” primarily serving Chambers of Commerce, major corporations, and real estate companies. Meanwhile, in 1982, the David James Press, Ltd. began producing printed maps and guides for the lesbian and gay community. Beck’s product was called “Fun Maps,” which appealed to Jeffrey Goodman, the third publisher of the David James Press. Beck sold Goodman the rights to the Fun Maps name. (At the start of the dotcom era, Goodman smartly combined the two words into “FunMaps.”)
Goodman had difficulties making his venture profitable. In 1992, he offered to sell it to Beck, whose business was thriving. Beck declined but was eventually persuaded to take over the company by its two primary FunMaps sales agents, Matt Mathrani and Alden Thayer. Beck describes the harrowing experience of that acquisition, saying, “Matt and Alden really wanted to continue serving the community. I figured FunMaps would be a good adjunct to Columbia, so I made it a subsidiary. I acquired all their printed maps stored in the warehouse. In six months, I was turning a profit. I diverted my attention from my other Columbia clients to this one business. It became my life’s work from 1994 on. In 2015, I sold the company to Multimedia Platforms, Inc. I sold it mainly for stock ownership in the new company for $3,250,000. I got one or two cash payments, and then was blocked from selling the stock. I lost everything. I took an interim position as a manager of Wolf’s bar in the Chardee space in Wilton Manors. I invested money into the bar, got burned again, but came out okay. In 2018, I founded “Fun Travel Guides,” knowing I could succeed with this business model as I had previously. That year, I also broke a hip and got married! Then COVID hit.”
Beck’s life partner is Broward College History & Ceramics professor Nicholas Starr. Although they met in New York City 42 years ago, Beck’s personal life has been as colorful as his business life. In line with his EST wisdom, he speaks without anger when he describes his additional marriages.
“Before Nick, I had three relationships, each lasting seven years. When I was having trouble with my first wife, I suggested we go to my doctor. He suggested I see a therapist, and my wife began an affair with that doctor. When I was out of town, she called asking how to use our fireplace, something she would never do, unless… I drove home to find her with him. I got a divorce. I then had a seven-year relationship with a wonderful man, Ken Adams, on the down-low. I had another seven-year marriage to a woman before I realized my true identity and sought a divorce. I have children and grandchildren from my marriages to women. My marriage to Nick has broken the ‘seven-year curse.’”
There is much more to the Alan Beck story, including his time as editor of the school paper at Columbia High in Maplewood, New Jersey, his work on the school publication at Lehigh University where he obtained a BA in Finance and Marketing, his time in ROTC and the Reserves leading to an honorable discharge as a First Lieutenant, his employment as sales manager at his father’s auto upholstery company, his acquisition of the “American Zephyr Railroad,” a private railroad passenger car company domiciled in DC, and his coming to terms with his Jewish upbringing and his teenage realization of his sexuality during a youthful romance with a male friend. He is currently Vice-Chair of the Stonewall National Museum, Archives & Library in Fort Lauderdale.
Beck is now planning to transition his “FunTravelGuides.com” back into “FunMaps.” He does not pretend to know the future of print, but he is building his presence online.
Those fortunate enough to have worked for Alan Beck describe him as an extremely trusting man, occasionally to his own detriment. Despite sometimes misplacing his trust in others, he has never become cynical, saying, “My mantra is to leave the world a better place for humanity.”
